Two Years on after Moving into My HDB - Lights and Electricity

You need extension bars. Every single room now have at least one extension bar. The study has four. Only the kitchen did not need an extension bar. I am fine using extension bars. More flexibility in shifting the power points around the room. It's up to you whether you prefer wall sockets to extension bars.

Planning for power sockets in the kitchen helped! Lucky for me, planning what goes where in the kitchen helped. Not a single extension bar needed!

All my lights are still working. Thanks to Lightings.com.sg. My lights are great and never had any problems during the last year. My Philips bulbs are also working fine. Maybe I should not have stocked up on Philips bulbs... I bought spare bulbs and tubes, but never had problems with all my lights.

IKEA Ceiling Lamp. Works great at a fantastic price. IKEA's LOCK Ceiling Lamp still going strong. My master bedroom corridor have one of these, and I use it to provide some romantic dim lighting in the room when I need less light.

Travel Plan for Taiwan (Single Day Plan A)

This will be the first of a number of Travel Plans for my Taiwan Trip. I have been to Taiwan 5 times. I planned three Free & Easy trips to Taiwan so far. So I have a few "fixed" day trips I got in my itinerary I use. This is one of them.

This itinerary covers Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Nanmen Market, Ximending, Longshang Temple, Hua Xi Night Market, Guangzhou Night Market, Wuzhou Night Market and Xichang Night Market.

Opening hours is based on what I find online and may be inaccurate

Morning
1. Travel by MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial MRT Station | Map

2. Visit the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall | Site Info |  Map
     Opening Hours: Daily, 9am to 6pm

3. Watch the changing of guards
     Daily, once every hour, starting from 10am to 6pm

4. Visit the nearby Nanmen Market | Site Info | Map
     Opening Hours: 7:30am - 6:30pm


Noon
5. Travel by MRT to Ximen MRT Station | Map

6. Have Lunch in Ximending (Recommendation: Ah Zhong Mian Xian)


Afternoon
7. Shopping in Ximending | Site Info | Map
     Opening Hours: Mon to Thu, 11am to 10:30pm. Fri to Sun, 11am to 11pm

8. Shopping in Ximen Station Shopping Mall

     Opening Hours: Mon to Thu, 11am to 10:30pm. Fri to Sun, 11am to 11pm

Late Afternoon
9. Travel by MRT to Longshan Temple MRT Station | Map

10. Shopping at Underground Shopping Bazaar | Site Info | Map


Evening
11. Visit Longshan Temple | Site Info | Map
      Opening Hours: Daily, 6am to 10pm

12. Have Dinner at any one of surrounding Night Markets


Night
13. Shopping in Hua Xi Night Market | Site Info | Map
      Opening Hours: Daily, 4pm to 12am

14. Shopping in Guangzhou Night Market| Site Info | Map
      Opening Hours: Daily, 4pm to 12am

15. Shopping in Xichang Night Market | Site Info | Map

16. Shopping in Wuzhou Night Market | Site Info | Map
      Opening Hours: Daily, 4pm to 12am

Travel Plan for Taiwan (Single Day Plan B)

This will be the second Travel Plan for visiting Taiwan

This itinerary covers Sun Yat-Sen Memorial, Taipei 101, Wufenpu, Roahe Night Market

Opening hours is based on what I find online and may be inaccurate

Morning

1. Travel by MRT to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall MRT Station | Map

2. Visit the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall | Site Info | Map
     Opening Hours: Daily, 9am - 6pm

3. Watch the changing of guards
     Daily, once every hour, starting from 10am to 6pm

4. If you don't mind walking, use (a), else (b)
     a. Travel by MRT to Taipei City Hall Station | Map
         Walk 13 mins south towards Taipei 101
         Note that on the east side of the walk, there are multiple shopping centers worth checking out.
     b. Travel by MRT to Taipei 101 World Trade Center Station | Map
         Walk east 1 min towards Taipei 101

Noon

5. Visit Taipei 101 | Site Info | Map
     Opening Hours: Daily, 9am - 10pm

6. Lunch at Taipei 101

7. Shopping around Taipei 101 area

Afternoon

8. Travel by MRT to Houshanpi MRT Station | Map
    Walk West for 10 mins towards Wufenpu

9. Shopping at Wufenpu | Site Info | Map
     Opening Hours: Weekday 11am to 9pm. Weekend 11am to 12am,
                                Mondays reserved for Wholesalers

Late Afternoon

10. Still Shopping at Wufenpu
       About 1000 clothing stores here. Men can go one corner and collapse in exhaustion..

Evening

11. Walk north for 8 mins towards Raohe Night Market

12. Dinner at Raohe Night Market | Site Info | Map
      Opening Hours: Daily, 5pm - 12am

Night

13. Shopping at Raohe Night Market

My Travel Plans when going to Taipei!

This entry is about how to plan your Taipei Trip! (And not about how fantastic my Taiwan Trip was!)

Get your free Taiwan Promotion Gift - http://theme.taiwan.net.tw/gift/gift_en.htm

Now this is a difficult site to find if you do not know the exact term to search online. There are many blog references to "Free gifts" people collected if they are travelling to taiwan. This site tells you what is the current free gift. Just remember, this is for tourists who purchase a travel package (plane ticket plus hotel booking) for independent travelers from a travel agency or airline. You must show proof of a booked hotel stay. Collect the gift at 30 Raffles Place, #10-01, Chevron House

Grab those brochures

At the same place where you redeem the free gift, it has tons of brochures on everything Taiwan. The printed maps will be useful for planning and for use while walking about Taiwan. Grab them!

"Follow the train" itinerary

For those that just want to take the MRT to explore the whole of Taipei, this is the best site for you. The Taipei Rapid Transit Transportation have compiled a list of all the places of interest near their stations. Just make sure you do your research on whether is the place is of any interest to you.

http://www.travel.taipei/frontsite/en/cms/cmsAction.do?method=goCMSDetail&listOne=true&contentId=3189&menuId=1030506

Useful Maps Special Mention

This person had the best Night Market Maps I had seen when I first travelled to Taiwan. If you scan through his Night Market blogs, you will find he drew out the lines on how to get to the Night Market from the MRT. And along which road does the Night Market stretches across.

http://mykafkeasquelife.blogspot.sg/2010/01/list-of-night-markets-in-taipei.html

Free WIFI

The Taiwan Government is now providing free WIFI for all visitors. (Yeah!) Just remember to register yourself before you set off.

https://itaiwan.gov.tw/en/

Renovating your HDB Flat - Master Bedroom

Ahh.. The master bedroom. The place where I will spent a third of the rest of my life sleeping in. That's if I do get to sleep a full eight hours a day. Which usually does not happen. But anyway...

The mattress is not cheap, but worth splurging on. How good your mattress is, will strongly impact how well you sleep and thus affect your overall health. So you must have a good mattress. Decide with your spouse, are you looking for soft or hard mattress. Mine was Nightingale from Cellini, as it was bundled together as a package.

How big your mattress is depends on the size of your room. Make measurements of your room so you know what size of mattress you can actually fit in. Decide how you want to place your mattress, and what is the space available on the sides of your mattress. Also take note your bed frame will also take some space as well. My master bedroom can only fit in a queen sized bed. One very interesting fact I learnt! Mattresses are not all equal in size. Queen size in Singapore is different from Queen Size in US. So take note of the actual size you are getting, instead of just relying on the term "queen size"

Bed frame with storage space is very useful. I have to admit, one of the criteria when I was out picking my bed frame, was that it should have space underneath to store things. So I finally decided one that allows me to lift up the whole bed to get to the storage space beneath. It is also a frame from Cellini as it is part of their package. I do have one regret, is that though the whole frame has hydraulics to help with the lifting, it still takes a fair bit of strength to lift it. Which means when I get older, I'll probably have problems with the frame.

A dressing table for the lady of the house is very important. This is the corner where the wife will do magic and transform into a beautiful woman. Make sure she have space to place all her make up and creams. Include a huge mirror for her to prim herself at. And make sure you get her a comfortable chair.

The "TV in the room" decision. I had mixed reactions when I told people I had mounted a TV in the master bedroom. Some says it's a great idea, others say it should never be in the bedroom. I guess the decision is up to you to decide. It will be a distraction at the end of the day, when you want to sleep where your other half prefers to watch a late night show. Make sure the two of you are in agreement on whether to have a TV or not.

I had mine mounted on the wall, because with the Queen sized bed in place, we only have walking space left for that side of the room. I picked up a wall mount frame from Courts. Had to really look for it as it was hidden in a corner of the store.

The wardrobe have to big enough for both you and your spouse. Generally speaking, ladies have more clothes than guys. It is hard to look beautiful if you only have a set of clothes for each day of the week (that would be my style). But anyway, make sure you have space to hang clothes, and space to place clothes that you fold. Some small drawers to keep your belts and accessories. Locked cupboards are useful for things that need to be under lock and key.

A full length mirror is always useful in a bedroom. I find this very useful for me to check myself after I got dressed for work. I can make sure that the tie is straight or that my hair is combed properly.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog
Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - Bedroom 3

Bedroom 3 is to be the study room. It will be where I will spend most of my time when I am on my laptop. So let me get started with what I did here.

Have a study corner built. Since this is the study, I need to have some space to place all my folders with my bills and letters. So shelves are needed. And some cupboards to keep stuff. Table space for placing the laptop and desktop. And drawers to sweep everything on the table into. Your contractor should be familiar with study room designs. Let him show you what he can do.

Have enough power points to power everything. This bit was something I left out. A study room have many things to power on. I had to buy 2 power extensions to provide enough three-pin sockets for all the electronic devices.

What if someone wants to come over to stay for a night? Having a sofa bed, lets you have a place to sit, and doubles up as a bed when you need one. Same things to look for in a sofa, e.g. fabric, texture, etc. One thing to note is that since it is a sofa-bed, it is bound to have moving parts. This means you better get a good one, or else it might just get rusted in place by the time you use it. Don't get those one-seater sofa beds. Those are just too narrow for anyone to sleep in.

My wife and I decided to have a sofa bed in the home even before we gotten the flat. So we looked at sofa-beds at IKEA, Courts, and a number of other places. Nothing really caught our fancy. Until Cellini, the place where we gotten our dining table and sofa, had an offer on Flow Sofa Bed. My wife loved it on first sight. She loves it, we buy it.

Extra storage space always helps. I also included two IKEA BILLY cupboards to place our CD and DVD collection. Gotten an extra shelf so that I have four shelves each. I bought a pair of glass doors for one first, and realised it did not look really nice. So instead of buying another pair of doors, I gotten two Doraemon doorway drapes to cover up the front. Unique two of a kind cupboards, done!

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog
Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home

Renovating your HDB Flat - The Bathrooms - The Bath Tub

The single most expensive thing in your toilet might be the bathtub. If you like to have long relaxing soak in hot steamy water, this is your chance to invest in a bathtub for your own home. Why do I call it an investment? Because it can be quite expensive and you might end up not using it often. Questions you want to ask yourself include..

Do you want a jacuzzi or a simple bathtub? For jacuzzi, you need to have power going into the tub. And their sizes are usually quite big and might not fit in most HDB toilets. But of course, they are the pinnacle of luxury living But then, having looked at quite a number of jacuzzi, I decided to just stick to a normal bathtub. Jacuzzi are just too expensive for me to afford!

Do you want a free-standing tub or a build-in tub? A free-standing bathtub means I just need to move it into place and have a plumber hook up the pipes underneath, to the drain. A built-in bathtub, means I need to have my contractor build the cement base for me to slide in the bathtub from the top. I picked a free-standing tub, even though it is more expensive overall. This is because if one day I need to throw it away in the future, I can just rip and throw.

What materials are there available? A decision that you might have not thought of, is what material is the bathtub made of? Typically in Singapore, you will see acrylic or fibreglass bathtubs. The material will determine the quality of the bathtub but will also push the costs up, so you have to strike a balance on what you want.

Can you actually move it in? Make sure you have space to move the tub into place. This includes your main door, corridor and toilet door. Most bathtubs will not be easily moved into place. Your bathtub's length should not be an exact fit for your bathroom's walls. My bathtub almost did not make it into my bathroom. Took a lot of manoeuvring to get it in place.

You should still have some leeway on the edges or else you will have problems fitting it in. Also take note that the toilet bowl and the shower will also get in the way of installing your bathtub. And if you end up with a bathtub too small to lounge in, then you're better off without it!

Consult your contractor. Discuss with your contractor on whether he can help settle the bathtub installation. Ask for his opinion as he may have experiences he could share, which can help you guide your own decision.

Check out the rest of my Renovation Blog
Master Bedroom | Bedroom 2 | Bedroom 3 | Bathrooms | Dining Room | Living Room | Shelter | Service Yard | Kitchen

Lights and Electricity | Air-conditioning | Bath Tub | Sofa | Washing Machine | Sink, Hob and Hood | Curtains | Filling up the rest of the home